Barcelona

Meet Adi and Mike. Adi is from India. He is a VJ for the equivalent of vh1 over there and he just filmed a movie in London do he is taking some time to travel before he heads back. Mike is the kid we told you about in Rome. We met him in Prague and we keep bumping into him in this trip. Both awesome dudes and hilarious. You'll hear their names a lot in this post but I'll get back to the when we arrived.

Finally, we arrived in Barcelona and we were nothing but relieved. We planned this trip perfectly because there wasn't too much to see in Barcelona that we had to cram everything in. So we knew we were going to take our time, stay out late and not worry about seeing the sites like the past 5 weeks. The hostel was one of the best we have had. It was a little family from Argentina who started it up so it was really laid back. Great thing about this place too, it was packed with Americans which was really comforting. The picture on the left is the sun rising and the moon going down on the train ride over.
We went to the nearest pastry shop and picked up some really good sandwiches. Working on no sleep we just hung out with Mike and Adi. They can both play the guitar and sing so they just played some songs that we all knew like Soul to Squeeze, Free Fallin and all the good stuff.
We also met a couple girls from the Boston area were studying in Florence and they were with a bunch of other girls from all over the US. The 8 of us all went out to dinner at the pretty nice place and the food was OK. We had tapas, Sangria, wine and some other Spanish food. After dinner some of us split up and went our own ways, so the two of us went with Adi, Mike and two other girls to a bar and hung out there for the remainder of the night.
Next morning we took it real easy and woke up whenever we wanted. The last month we have been waking up between 7-8 so this was a treat. We watched Superbad with a bunch of people due to the fact it was pouring out. Which, I might add, is the only day it really rained our whole trip..we kind of took that for granted. We then went to the Sangria Famalia which was a wash because of how rainy it was...but hey, we tried doing something productive. It was Halloween so we expected to do something regardless if we dressed up or not. So, just like every Halloween all of us scratched the idea of dressing up and just went as super sexy Americans....ourselves....get it.
We went to a club right on the beach called Shoko. Not having costumes worked out great because only about 25% of the club were dressed up so we fit right in. The music was a lot better than the club we went to in Berlin. We could just imagine what this place would be like in the Summer. The back end of the club was all outside on the beach. This club was pretty high class too with hired dancers on platforms and VIP sections scattered around. Reminded of us of some Vegas clubs. We got back at about 4:00 AM but it was OK because we had nothing planned for the next day.
The next day had a lot better weather than we expected so we got out right away (like noon time) to go see the Guell Park, known for it's really good view of the whole city, mosaic dragons and celings and some other cool architecture. Mike came with. The view from the top of the hill was one of the best city views we have seen the whole trip. We went to the Sangira Familia once more to check it out and it was much better because it was nicer out. Reminded us of a huge drip castle that you used to make on the beach. The sculptures were insanely perfect all over the whole building. Pretty cool to see. After doing some walking around the city we went to the market and bought some food for dinner. It was a prett nice dinner. It was pasta americana with some bread and red wine. Made by Clint, Mike and myself. It was the best dinner we have had in Barcelona.

The 4 of us and 2 other girls from our hostel headed out to this club called "Razzmatazz," which was a huge warehouse type building with 5 different genres of music split up into huge rooms. The club opened at 1AM and the cover was about 15euro with a free drink included. This place was massive and could probably fit about 2500 people. Come 3:00am this place was shoulder to shoulder with people and it was bumpin with music we never really heard but we loved it regardless. Later on a band came out called "the presets" and they had about a 2 hour performance, and this wasn't your typical band. One guy on drums and another on keyboard who was also the singer. They played dance music too so it was something we haven't ever seen back in the States. We could go on with the stories but I rather not. Long story short, this was our best night of the trip and we felt like couldn't have done it any better. We got home at about 7:00am all in one piece and went to bed...then woke up at 9 and got our free breakfast. From that point on was a whole lot of nothing. We made dinner again that night because we didn't want to risk eating crappy food again.
The next morning we packed up our bags and headed to Madrid.

Sorrento, Pompeii, Cinque Terre, Avignon

So the next few days after Rome were a huge mess due to some confusion of the trains and hostel openings. We headed right to Sorrento which is right outside of Pompeii. It was what we imagined a little town would look like in Italy. Our hostel was actually a hotel converted to a hostel which wasn't really that cool because it didn't have many young travelers around. We needed to get up early to see everything we wanted to see in order to get to Cinque Terre in time...so we thought. We got some pizza and Gelatto for dinner and walked around the city the rest of the night.
Pompeii was awesome. It was a dug up village that was ashed over and frozen after a volcano eruption in about 79 AD. They had body cavities of humans and dogs and their remains were in great condition (The one up top was a guy who was curled up in a ball "crying himself to death"....how sad). They had a mini Colosseum where they had gladiators fight and little villages where you could see where they slept, drank, sold food etc. Paintings on the walls were also preserved really well. It was huge too, didn't even get to cover it all....THAT'S WHAT SH....nevermind. The Roman forum was impressive but after seeing how well intact everything was here it was really something. So....a disastrous volcano eruption that kills thousands can actually have a brightside to it because preservation of everything is impeccable. Afterward, we picked up some pizza and headed to the train station.
The train ride to Riomaggorie (a city near the Cinque Terre) was pretty miserable because our train broke down dead in its tracks...no pun intended. So we got there late at about 10:00. So we get to this small city (population 56) which is one road that is uphill right near the coast and the hostel is closed. The sign on the door notified us that is we didn't get there by 6:00 we would be out of luck for a room and they would still charge us. Luckily, we found a woman closing her restaurant and one phone call later we met a short, curly haired woman on a dark stoop. This is where I thought my final minutes in life would be. She brought us up this dark stairway and gave us a key to a room. We gave her 25 euro each and she left. That's it and that's all. Never saw her again. We were heated about the situation and it got worse once we found out that we messed up the train schedule. The last thing we ate was at 11:00 am so we had to wither away until the next morning. There would no way to get to Barcelona on the nights we booked unless we left the next morning. So we skipped the hike through Cinque Terre (which by the way is 5 cities a trail with really cool views). It was rainy so we weren't too upset about it. 12 hours later of train riding were in Avignon, a big city in Southern France. We went right to a Irish pub (the only thing open in the area). We left at about 1am and headed back to the train station. Our original plan was stop and stay in the train station until our 5:55am train to Barcelona but it was closed until 4am...so we went to a nearby stairwell and stooped it the whole night. That was an experience....pretty cold out too.
Barcelona is next and we will be there for 4 nights including Halloween. We plan on ending our last week with a bang.

When in Rome

We got to Rome at noon. Our hostel was pretty awesome. One of those converted apartments that was right on one of the main streets in Rome. Since we got there so early we went to the Vatican, which was literally 2 blocks away, and checked it out there. We went into St. Peter´s Basilica and got to see how gigantic it really is. They have a lot of Pope´s buried inside the church so it was cool to see their tomb like shrines.
For dinner we went to a restaurant that was recommended by the owner of the hostel, Ivano, who looks exactly like Antonio Banderas. The place had really good food. We got some great pasta and hung out there for a while. In Europe we learned that they don´t bring you your check until you ask for it. It´s pretty nice because they don´t rush you out right when you finish. We then went to get some Gellato. This Gellato was the best we have head in our lives and they pack it on thick. There were about 30 varieties of never before seen flavors (at least by us) so it was a lot different than typical ice cream at home.
The next morning we went straight to the Colosseum. We had been looking forward to that the whole trip. The place was really awesome. We have a really bad craving to watch Gladiator now though and want to slay people. Right after the Colosseum we went to the Roman Forum which was just as cool to see everything left as it was from way back in the day.

The next day in Rome was a free entry to the Sistine Chapel, which had our name written all over it. It opened at 8:30 so we got there at about 7:45 to get a good spot but that didn't work out as well as we planned because we were about 200m back from the doors. We literally moved 20 ft in 45 minutes. This line was getting huge, probably the longest line I´ve ever seen in my life. It turns out there was a reason for the line not moving, it was daylight savings time and Europe does it 1 week earlier than the US for some reason. Probably because that's the only thing they can beat the US in....COUNT IT! We didn't realize this little factoid until the day was over so I, Steve, left the line and went to mass that the Pope gave. 10 minutes later Clint got into the Sistine for free while I had to plan on going in the morning. The mass was really something to see though. People were just taking pictures like they were on the red carpet. Even though the whole mass was in Italian it was cool to be at a mass with the Pope there. Then we went to the Trevi Fountain, Pantheon and the Spanish Steps. We were the only ones walking around in cargo shorts even thought it was about 70 degrees. They must have went out of style over here.
At night we met some more friends and hung out with them. One of them was actually a kid who stayed in our hostel in Prague that we chilled with there so that was pretty ironic. Another kid was on vacation from Iraq for the Army. He flew unmanned spy planes and he had some good stories to tell, mostly talking about how much good we have done over there and the media never recognize it. And there were also about 8 aussies in our hostel and again, they have all the same story and always try to take jabs at the US so it can get annoying.
The last morning we had to wake up early so I could go to the Sistine Chapel and Clint could go to this museum full of monk bones and skulls. The Sistine Chapel was really something. Each section of the wall was something specific i.e. Separation of Light from Darkness, Land and water, Creation of Adam which is pretty well known, Original Sin, the Final Judgment. Again, there were no pictures allowed, but even if there was, it wouldn´t do it any justice. Clint couldn't take pictures of the skull museum probably because he would get his soul taken away from him if he did.
Rome was definitley one of the top cities we have been to so far and we are looking forward to hitting up the rest of Italy and Spain for the remainder of the trip. Anndd here's another picture of, you guessed it, Clint and Steve....wearing the same clothes that you see in most of the pictures.

Florence

Once we got into Florence we had to take a bus to the hostile. It didn't take long to find the bus but once we got on it was packed. I think we suffocated some people with our backpacks and got in everyone's way. And it was hot with no air conditioning. Florence had much better weather temperature wise...about 65 degrees. Once we got to our hostel we found that we had a private room...Wah Wah Wahhh. We didn't ask for it but I guess that's all they had AND it was 12 euro.
We immediately went out and got some pizza for dinner. It was awesome pizza to say the least and not too expensive. It was pretty late so we headed back to get some sleep so we could wake up early the next morning.
Once we woke up we headed into the city to check the sites. We really didn't know what too look for but we wandered out regardless. We bumped into these kid we met in Interlaken (random) from the US and we walked around with them. One of them lived near Venice for work so he knew where to go and what to see. We saw the Duomo (a huge cathedral that was really cool), the Ponte Vecchio (which is a famous bridge which had jewelery stores on each side), Giotto's tower, Palazzo Vecchio which has crazy designs all over the building, and of course, the David in the Accademia Gallery. The David is the statue Michelangelo sculptured with a scrap heap of marble that was being thrown out. It is supposed to be David right before he defeats Goliath. There were no pictures allowed but if you don't know its a 20 foot tall naked dude. It was sculpted perfectly and really has an aura about it. His right hand was slightly bigger than his left purposely because it symbolized the power that he had. We thought this was going to be overrated but it definitely lives up to all the talk and the pictures (above) don't do it any justice.
Later that day we hung out in hostel patio and just drank some wine that we bought earlier that was recommended. It was really good wine called Vernaccia Di San Gimgnano (a white wine). Probably the most liberal thing we have done the whole trip but it was a good time. We made some friends from Germany and hung out with them the remainder of the night.
The previous night, we both thought there might have been some bugs in our room, but this night we were certain. We could have slept outside in the forest and not have gotten bothered as much. They were attacking our ears like they were homing beacons. I (Stephen) ended up putting a bathing suit on my head the whole night but that still didn't work. We would both kept waking up to each other swinging pillows violently like it would help. So not so much sleep for Clint and Steve. So we got up, had the crappiest breakfast ever and headed to Rome as soon as possible. Something we noticed over here is that they love warm milk. We don't know if it's a European thing or just the hostiles we stay in.
There was a cool subway that had a ton of graffiti in the tunnel and I guess its a pretty big tourist attraction so we got to check that out too.

Interlaken, Switzerland

We arrived in Interlaken at about 8:00pm. The train ride was one of the best ones we have had. The views were great as we were riding next through mountains for about four hours. Yet another currency exchange needed to be done from EUR to CHF which is very similar to the dollar. Our hostel was pretty cool because it was just as you would imagine a cabin in the mountains. We were walking around the place and the owner of this place seemed to thing he was God's Gift to Switzerland. He must of hung up every article that was ever written about him. Pictures of him with Bill Clinton were being sold as postcards and everyhing he sold had his name all over it, "Balmer."
Shortly after we got settled we decided to "recharge our batteries, and shut down the engines and get ourselves back to neutral."...(name that movie and you get a souvenir) we were starving (whats new) so we went looking for a place to eat. The Only thing that was open was a pizza place so we did that. It was actually really good pizza too and once again there was no conversation while the food was on the table...it all business at dinner time. We are with each other 24 hours a day and the last thing we want to do is chat during feeding time.
The next morning we woke up and decided to do some hiking. We started walking to the train station that brings you up to the spots to hike and as we were walking we got a beep beep by a car. Turns out it was the myth, the man, the legend, the pride of Interlaken, Uncle Eric Balmer,the owner of the hostel, and he gave us a ride to the station. Saved us like 15 minutes. This guy was a gem. He was telling us that we should be taking the train up to Jung Frau instead of hiking. He then get out of his SUV and starts handing out pens, waterbottles, you name it...the guy had it AND with his name written all over it. We made the decision to do the train ride after we were talking to another guy about the hiking and he laughed at us because we had shorts on and he asked if we had any climbing gear with us... We figure it was out of league. The train ride was awesome and we finally got to our stop after about hour and a half. We were about 2600 meters up which is about 8500 feet high. The views of the surrounding mountains and small towns were breath taking. We did some exploring and got some even better views and saw some small avalanches. We stayed on the mountain for about 2 hours and then headed back down where we say some waterfalls on the way. Overall it was a great day and the weather was good which seems to be the theme lately! Florence next.

Vorarlberg, Austria

We arrived in the small town of Vorarlberg, Austria at about 3:00 and got picked up by the wonderful Isabella. If you don't already know, we met her in London and she was nice enough to show us around and crash at her place. We actually think she lured us to her flat to build things for her but that was ok with us. While she made us dinner we both used our uncanny American building skills to help her put together her new bed called something i can't pronounce or spell---latarousche?? yea.
After dinner her friend Martina came over and they took us to a town close by. They showed us a huge lake with a stage in it, where the recent James Bond movie was filmed. Right across the lake was Germany and we got some sweet panoramic pictures of the sunset....which is the new background of the blog. They would laugh at us when we took pictures because I'm sure they don't think it is as big as a deal. I think i would laugh at someone if they started taking pictures of the Prudential or the Lowell Mills. We stopped by a local bar and we were the first ones in the place so it was pretty dead but who need people when your surrounded by great company.
We headed back to the flat and they showed us how to play some card games. Their deck has only 36 cards so that was a task in itself trying to know which card is which. It was very similar to the game 45's actually so it was cool. We then taught them how to play some card games that we knew and they got a kick out of them.
The next morning we went to a nearby mountain and took the gondola up it and ate lunch at restaurant at the very top. We then hiked down the mountain which we somewhat regretted shortly after. We were very sore to say the least. Overall, this was a great "backdoor trip" of Austria and we can't wait for Isabella to come visit Boston.

Munchen Munchen Munchen

So we arrived in Munich aka Munchen at about 5pm. It was really easy to get to the hostel from the station...about 200m away. At this hostel we were in a room with 22 people so we knew it was going to be pretty interesting. The room smelt really bad at first but overall it was really clean and sleepable. This hostel, like many others, had a bar in it and a cool lounge where everyone hung out...so it was pretty cool. We met a girl from the Boston area and chilled with her for a little bit at the bar. Again, the whole days traveling wore us out so we didn't really hit the town.
The next morning we woke up for the free tour and once again, it was full of info and interesting stuff. We saw the famous Glockenspiel which is basically giant cuckoo clock that performs for about 15 minutes....(overrated), the popular beer gardens along with the history, Hitlers 3rd Reich (which was really interesting), Kristallnacht, the Frauenkirche and a ton of other stuff. During the tour we met a girl from Canada and we hung out with her the majority of the time and we planned on meeting her for dinner. She was traveling alone so we decided that we would keep her company. She actually does couchsurfing, which is where you sign up to a facebook-like site and ask people if you can sleep on their couch for free. This really got us thinking that we should give it a shot, so we will see if we can pull that off by the end of the trip.
That night we went to a place a few blocks down from the hostel and we both had scnittzle for the 2nd time on the trip. Its just so good, once it hits your lips you can't get enough of it. Restaraunts over here are extremely different than at home. First of all, there are no chain restaraunts, we have only seen 2 TGIFridays the whole trip (which is a good thing). Second of all, everyone smokes in them and it almost ruins your meal when some lady is suckin in a ciggie and then she coughs up her black lung on to your lap. Lastly, we still have no idea how to tip. People have told us not to tip 20% but a little less, so we basically just throw whatever we have in our pockets down. side note: one restaraunt we went to which was fairly nice had 3 dogs in it (1 was a pitbull) and they were bumpin' Biggie and 50Cent .
The next day is the first day we both split up. Yes its true, we went our own ways for once in the trip. Clint went to the BMW museum and I went for a run around the Munich Olympic Village and made periodic stops to check out the sights. The village was cool, I got to see the track that everything was ran on, the soccer field, the pool where Spitz swam in, the building where the Munich Massacre was and a bunch of other cool sights around the area. It was a nice day for a run too. The BMW museum was right acorss the street so we met up right afterwards. Clint posted a ton of pictures on the site.
For dinner we went to this pub and got an all you can eat stew with a beer for 6 Euro. The stew had everything in it sausages, carrots, peas, hotdogs, potatoes, croutons and some other good stuff. Didn't look that appetizing but it was really good. We both had 3 bowls and were stuffed for the remainder of the night (5 was the record). The bartender was really cool, we talked about his marketing strategies the whole time and he was really funny. Afterward, we hung out at the hostel lounge for a little bit and then went to the Hofbrahhaust to get a drink. Munich is known for its beer gardens and Oktoberfest and we just missed Oktoberfest which was unfortunate, but the hostels were all sold out and hotels were rediculously expensive. Anyways, the beers were gi-normous and surprisingly tasty. They give you a liter so the mug was bigger than our faces. We also got a delicious pretzel to chomp on. It was really good and not too expensive. The place had huge picnic like tables with people just drinking beers. Something you don't see too much of in the States. We head to our friend from Austria, Isabella's, house next...Ciao.